The SAND ARTIST and Other Stories — Maynard Allington

Karen Larsson, a young woman diagnosed with terminal cancer, returnes to the beachside resort town of her childhood. It's the summer of 1939 - a season of deceptive calm and lazy, sun-drenched days. Walking on the beach, she sees a sand artist at work. Patrick Quinlivan, once an aspiring sculptor, has lost an arm in the Spanish Civil War. Now he can only sculpt in sand. Their lives will converge one morning before dawn when Quinlivan catches sight of a despondent Karen attempting to drown herself in the surf.

The Sand Artist tells the story of a brief love affair, poignant and desperate, between two people whose lives have been shattered in separate ways. The overarching metaphor of sand sculpture, washing away in the tides, expresses the larger theme of impermanence and mortality in a world drifting toward war.

With the exception of three mysteries previously published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, this collection of short fiction contains some of the author's best work in the literary genre.